How About I Impair Your Face?

I have heard valuation professionals sometimes referred to in the context of being the “fourth service provider”, with the other three of course being the accountant, attorney, and investment banker. Valuation can play a role after all, and does indeed touch all of those domains on the Gant Chart. It’s a wonderful way to visualize the role of a valuation professional in a neat, tidy, soundbite kind of way. When it comes to financial reporting though, it feels like the profession is more like a fourth leg in the chair when the client really just wants to sit on a three legged stool. This is especially true when it comes to FAS 142. Most clients question the value of the FAS 141 in the first place, so when they are presented with the threat of having to do it all over when the acquisition didn’t go as planned, you can imagine their disdain. They basically have to pay us to come in and literally destroy their balance sheet. Think about that. How would you feel if you had to pay someone to come over and wreck your house? We had an engagement recently in this realm that was truly horrible. The CFO didn’t want an impairment, the auditor did, we went round and round on all kinds of technical gobblygook and finally ended up with no impairment. Both sides racked up a ton of fees and the client didn’t want to pay for any of it. The sad thing is I am quite certain in this new era of doom and gloom that these engagements will become very common. I suppose that’s good from the perspective of staying busy, but it’s never fun to service clients that don’t want to hire you in the first place.